TIRAMISU Serves 8. By Dennis W. Viau; created from several recipes. I wanted to make a classic tiramisu with only the best ingredients. I therefore made my own mascarpone cheese and lady fingers cookies from scratch. Because some mixtures need to chill in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight, I started two days in advance. Using storebought items can reduce the time, but it might compromise the finished dessert. Ingredients: 6 egg yolks (reserve the whites for a later step) Optional: 2 to 3 tablespoons cream 1¼ to 2 cups (250 to 400g) sugar, depending on how sweet you want your dessert (see Note at end) 1¼ cups (9½ oz./270g) mascarpone cheese; chilled There is a recipe-procedure for making mascarpone on this web site. Look under Basics in the Recipe Archive. 1¾ cups (414ml) heavy whipping cream 1 tablespoon sugar 2 12-ounce (340g each) packages of lady fingers (or make your own shown below) ½ cup (118ml) coffee-flavored liqueur, or strong brewed coffee 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1-ounce (28g) square semisweet chocolate; at room temperature Directions: Combine the egg yolks, optional 2 to 3 tablespoons cream, and 1¼ to 2 cups sugar in a medium saucepan. Whisk to mix well. Heat about 1 cup water to boiling in a larger saucepan. Rest the smaller pan over the boiling water and reduce the heat to low. Stirring constantly, cook the yolk mixture until thick and creamy. This can take as long as 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and allow to cool. Chill several hours, preferably overnight, in the refrigerator. Add the mascarpone to the chilled yolk mixture and blend well. In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Add the sugar and continue whisking the cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold the cream, in three batches, into the yolk-mascarpone mixture. Work gently so as to maintain the loft of the whipped cream. Line the sides and bottom of a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan with lady fingers cookies, cut to fit snugly. Dipping the bottom end of a cookie in the cream will help them to remain in place around the circumference of the pan. Brush the cookies with coffee liqueur. Spoon half the mascarpone-cream filling over the cookies and cover the top with another layer of cookies. Brush with coffee liqueur. Spoon the remaining filling over the cookies to fill the pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Place the cocoa powder in a small sifter and lightly dust the top surface of the tiramisu with cocoa. Using a vegetable peeler, carve curls of chocolate from the chocolate bar and garnish the top. Refrigerate the tiramisu several hours, or overnight, before serving. Serve cold. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page. 1 20130425
1 STEP-BY-STEP 2 I make my own mascarpone cheese. There is a recipe-procedure on this web site. Look under Basics in the Recipe Archive. This mascarpone above started as liquid heavy cream. You can see it has solidified into a creamy cheese, similar in texture to cream cheese. 2 You need 1¼ cups mascarpone for this recipe. I started with 1¾ cups (414ml) heavy cream. After the whey had drained off, I had the 1¼ cups (9½ oz./270g) mascarpone I needed.
3 3 To start the custard, whip the egg yolks and sugar in a medium saucepan for several minutes until the mixture is smooth and golden. I prefer to add a splash of cream, 2 to 3 tablespoons, when making a custard mixture like this. I think the extra moisture helps protect the yolks a little when cooking. 4 Set up a double boiler by heating about 1 cup (237ml) water to boiling in a larger saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and rest the smaller saucepan over the boiling water. Cooking over simmering water, which doesn t rise above 212 F (100 C), is safer than over the hundreds of degrees of the flame. It helps protect the yolks from cooking to rapidly, becoming scrambled eggs.
5 4 Stirring constantly, cook the yolk mixture until it thickens. This can take as long as 10 minutes. If lumps should appear, quickly remove the inner pan from the heat and whisk vigorously to break up any lumps before returning the pan to the simmering water. 6 Here is my thickened custard, removed from the heat. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and set aside to cool. Chill this mixture in the refrigerator several hours, preferably overnight. If you are making you own mascarpone, this egg mixture can rest in the refrigerator at the same time as the mascarpone is draining.
7 5 I chose to make my own lady fingers cookies for this tiramisu, for a few reasons. The lady fingers in the local grocery store looked awful, and there were too few of them. I also wanted this dessert to be as homemade as I could possibly make it. These are the ingredients for the cookies, and this will make more than enough. 8 In an electric mixer, combine six egg yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Beat at high speed for about 5 minutes, until the mixture becomes thick and a pale yellow. The mixture should be slightly thickened, such that when the paddle is lifted from the yolks, the batter will stream off in a ribbon. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and combine.
9 6 Whip six egg whites until frothy. Add ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter and continue whipping the whites to soft peaks. Continue whisking, adding 6 tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon at time, until the whites are glossy and have form peaks. 10 Fold the egg whites and 1 cup (4½ oz./125g) cake flour into the beaten eggs, one third at a time, folding gently to combine. Folding carefully will help maintain the loft of the whipped egg whites. This is the cookie batter.
11 7 Arrange a ziplock bag inside a large measuring cup or a bowl and fill with the cookie batter. 12 Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut one corner off the ziplock bag, making a hole approximately ½ inch (1.25cm) wide. Squeeze the batter onto a baking sheet, moving the bag slowly as you squeeze out the batter. Make the cookies wide, about ¾ inch (2cm). I drew lines on the underside of the parchment paper to give me guide lines for the cookies that will line the circumference of my tiramisu. My springform pan is 2½ inches (6cm) deep; so I made the cookies the exact size needed. The length of the other cookies doesn t matter, as you will use different sized cookies inside the tiramisu. Dust the tops with powdered sugar.
13 8 To help you see the size of the cookies, I held my hand just above the cookie sheet. Although named lady fingers, you can see they are thicker than my man-sized fingers. 14 Bake the cookies 13 to 15 minutes in an oven heated to 350 F (177 C). The cookies should be very slightly browned. Quickly remove them from the parchment paper using a spatula and cool on a wire rack. My recipe made 70 cookies, one of which I tasted. Although some are oddly shaped, there are more than enough cookies to complete the tiramisu. (The extras are excellent with coffee or tea.)
15 9 Returning to the mascarpone and custard made earlier (now thoroughly chilled), combine the two ingredients until well blended and smooth. The custard needs to be cold; otherwise, the mascarpone will melt into an oil. One book says to prevent the cheese from coming up to room temperature for fear it might break. 16 Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks. The whipped cream can be flavored with 2 to 3 tablespoons of dark rum, which is traditional in many tiramisu recipes. Sugar can be added to the cream, if you prefer.
17 10 Gently fold the whipped cream, one third at a time, into the custard-mascarpone mixture. This is the cream filling for the tiramisu. 18 Arrange some of the cookies upright around the inner circumference of a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan. Dipping the bottom of each cookie into the cream filling will help hold them in place. I lined the bottom of my springform pan with a circle of parchment paper, cut to fit.
19 11 Arrange cookies in the bottom of the springform pan. Put about half a cup of coffee-flavored liqueur or strong coffee in a small bowl and, using a pastry brush, garnish the cookies with the liquid. Don t soak the cookies, but coat them well enough to add the flavor. 20 Spoon half the filling into the springform pan and arrange another layer of cookies over the surface. Again, brush the cookies with the coffee liquid.
21 12 Spoon the remaining filling into the springform pan, smoothing the top surface. Place about 1 teaspoon cocoa powder in a small sifter and lightly dust the top surface of the tiramisu with the cocoa. 22 Using a vegetable peeler, shave curls from a piece of chocolate. I found the curls were easier to create if the chocolate was at room temperature. Decorate the top of the tiramisu with the shaved chocolate and chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before serving.
23 13 Serve cold. This is a beautifully elegant dessert that can be time-consuming to prepare if you make your own mascarpone and lady finger cookies. The effort, however, is well worth it when you can place an elegant dessert like this in front of your dining guests. Conclusion There can be no doubt that I made extra work for myself by making my own mascarpone and lady finger cookies. I started two days in advance, making the cheese and custard first. However, the mascarpone in the store is expensive. The lady fingers looked pathetic. To create a truly classic tiramisu I chose to do the extra work. The final dessert proved it had all been worth the effort. Note I do not enjoy cloyingly sweet desserts. I therefore chose to use only 1¼ cups of sugar when making the custard. The final tiramisu was mildly sweet and delicate in flavor, a perfect dessert. Also worth mentioning is one recipe I saw as a video. The cook added the mascarpone to the hot egg custard when it was removed from the stove. I was appalled. Heat melts the mascarpone into an oil, ruining the mascarpone, and the tiramisu.